Immunotherapy concepts under investigation.

Abstract

Allergen-specific immunotherapy (SIT) is effective, but used by only 5% of allergy patients, partly because it requires several years. Intralymphatic immunotherapy (ILIT) administers allergen directly into a subcutaneous lymph node and requires only three injections and a lower allergen dose than subcutaneous administration. ILIT was further improved using a recombinant allergen with enhanced uptake and decreased degradation by antigen-presenting cells. Another interesting route is transcutaneous/epicutaneous immunotherapy (TCIT, EPIT), which administers allergen by a skin patch. Clinical trials show that TCIT, EPIT is safe and comparably effective to conventional immunotherapy. Implementation of these new methods would increase the spectrum of SIT options, allowing greater individual choice of SIT.